Banquet Schemes

When Raquel and Ryker neared the palace, the two parted ways. Ryker headed for the main entrance while Raquel disappeared to use her secret route, seeing as her visit to the city wasn’t meant to have happened.

And as soon as she opened the door of her office, Raquel found Nicole sitting on one of the couches, slowly sipping tea.

When Nicolel noticed the door opening, she turned to look at Raquel, placing her teacup down. “It’s good to see you, your highness. How was the slacking off?”

Raquel knew instantly from her maid’s tone of voice that she was in trouble. How much? Raquel hoped it was very little but was ready for the worst.

“It was good, Nicole.” Raquel answered, taking a seat next to her maid. “You should come next time.”

“And how do you suppose we will hide the fact, we’re missing from the palace?” Nicole murmured as she got up to make Raquel a cup of tea.

“I guess you’re right.” Raquel sighed in disappointment, taking the warm tea from Nicole. “Looks like I’ll have to find someone loyal enough so we can spend some time together.”

Nicole smiled softly at Raquel. “You don’t have to worry about that right now. There are more important things to worry about.”

Raquel looked over at her desk, two piles of documents on it and grumbled, “I suppose you’re right.”

“As much as I’d like for you to do that, you’ll need to get ready for the banquet.” Nicole chuckled. “We only have four hours left before it begins and with you being in the city….”

Raquel didn’t need Nicole to finish her sentence to understand what she meant. Raquel could feel the bits of dirt on her. A warm, relaxing bath before having to deal with whatever her father was scheming would be a great idea.

“Alright let’s go. I could use a relaxing bath before I deal with whatever’s in that dining hall.” Raquel declared, getting up.

Nicole stood her head in amusement before following Raquel out the office to Raquel’s quarters.

***

Ryker sat on a soft, red leather seat in one of the dining halls of the Cadilaria Palace. It was as grand as the rest of the palace, with gold lining every corner of the room. The center of the room had a long rectangular table with a large, diamond chandelier hanging above it.

At the head of the table sat the emperor with one of his concubines, Lady Diana. On the other end sat Raquel with everyone else being seated on the sides of the table.

Ryker found himself in the middle seated next to one of the other princesses and the Prince of Tignor while another concubine and Princess Fania sat across from Ryker.

Looking at the princess, he could see she was quite a beautiful woman. However, her brown cat-like eyes made Ryker feel like he was her prey.

Noticing his stare, the princess smirked at Ryker. “Do you find something interesting?”

“Ah apologies, your highness.” Ryker smiled sheepishly. “I must have zoned out again.”

Princess Faina leaned closer to the table, clearly trying to show off her bosom. “What were you thinking about, Duke Ryker?”

“If it would be possible to create a flying machine with mage magic.” Ryker quickly responded with the first random thing that came to mind. “I guess it would be useless seeing as we use teleportation mostly but-”

“I see…” Faina interrupted, leaning back into her seat with a look of disappointment.

Guess the emperor is making sure to have a plan B in case Raquel doesn’t pick me as her husband. Ryker thought as he downed the last meat pastry on his plate. Too bad, I’m only interested in the Crown Princess and really know how two-faced this princess is…

“So, Duke Westerwyn…” A voice murmured softly, stopping Ryker’s train of thought.

Ryker looked up to see the Prince of Tignor looking at him with interest. “Yes, Prince Aki.”

“I heard you run the biggest mage research lab.” Prince Aki continued. “And that you recently gifted the emperor quite a few magic crystals.”

Something clicked in Ryker’s brain as he realized where the prince was going. The prince was looking to talk business with him, but by the tone of his voice, didn’t want to make the royals around them know that too.

“Ah yes. My duchy is quite small compared to the kingdom your highness will one day rule, so I had to show off in some way.”

Aki chuckled, “Well that is certainly a great way to get the emperor’s attention. As well as everyone else’s attention…”

Ryker smiled, placing a hand in his pocket before pulling out a small purple crystal and handkerchief. Prince Aki quickly noticed the movement and took the crystal from him. Ryker then brought the handkerchief to his lips, acting as if he was wiping his mouth.

As he did, he chanted a small spell and said in his head, “Can you hear me?”

“I-I can!” A shocked voice sounded in his head.

He looked at Prince Aki to see the man had a blank look on his face. Ryker smiled seeing that the prince knew how to hide his surprise well.

“I didn’t realize you were a mage, Duke Ryker.”

“Considering most of the duchy’s population are mages, it would be weird to think otherwise, wouldn’t it?”

“I suppose there is truth to that but you are quite powerful, seeing as you can do mind spells.” Prince Aki asked as he nodded at a servant placing a dish in front of him.

“This spell isn’t that difficult as you get the person’s permission and the crystal is used to link the minds but that’s a conversation for another time…”

“Yes…I did want to talk about your mages.”

“What about them?”

“It seems in recent years our mage population has been declining. I’m sure you’ve heard about the emperor wanting mages.”

Ryker recalled his mother talking about it a few months ago when several mages had left the duchy. “I do recall that.”

“Well, we lost quite a few powerful ones so our younger mages haven’t gotten the proper training…”

“And you’re wondering if I have any academies that your mages can learn from?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, I do but they’ll have to pass entrance exams and won’t be able to learn certain things that belong to the duchy.” Ryker answered, finishing his main course dish of fish and vegetables.

“I can agree to that. Of course, we can create a more solid contract during this whole suitor thing.”

“Yes of-”

Suddenly a voice boomed out, interrupting Ryker, “I have decided who I’ll marry!”